You may not have heard her name before – but you will almost certainly have heard British songbird Phildel’s voice.
Her songs have featured in a plethora of TV adverts ranging from Marks & Spencer to Persil, and from Apple to Expedia.
No surprise there, because the 28-year-old London singer-songwriter has a voice to die for.
It arrives along that branch of pop’s family tree which runs from Kate Bush via Sarah McLachlan to Imogen Heap.
All of which is remarkable given that Phildel – it’s a blend of her parents’ names Philip and Della – spent a miserable childhood in a fundamentalist family home where music was regarded as the devil’s work.
With no CD player, no radio and no musical instruments in the house for 10 years, Phildel spent lunchtimes tinkling on the school piano. Eventually, at the age of 17, she ran away from home and started writing.
“Music was forbidden,” says the singer, now 28. “My mother’s second husband was a fundamentalist Muslim from Egypt. I came to know silence well.
“I’d escape to the school practice room during lunch breaks, and wrote the songs which now make up my album. I’d continue scribbling down lyrics in secret during the night.”
And what songs they are.
Recorded in the Chilterns, where she now lives, they are both enchanting and chilling. Often an upbeat melody will hide heartbreak in the lyrics; sometimes it’s the other way round.
The title track opener sets an ethereal vocal against skewed strings, a swoon of a song.
Both Beside You and Union Stone confirm the influence that Kate Bush must have had as Phildel caught up on everything she’d missed.
Not that it’s an unnecessarily arty album.
Storm Song is something Sarah McLachlan might want to cover, and Mistakes has all the hallmarks of Adele.
Both The Wolf and Holes In Your Coffin are unashamed electropop romps.
At the close, Funeral Bell is a piece of studio trickery in which an acapella Phildel harmonises with herself, much like Imogen Heap’s Hide And Seek.
This is the most ecelectic chanteuse set since Annie Poe’s Haunted. Buy it.
Set your alarm clock. Adele’s new Bond film theme is to debut on the singer’s website at seven minutes past midnight – or 0.07 in digital parlance.
At the aptly appointed time on Friday October 5, the world will get to hear what is already being tipped as the year’s most anticipated single, and a global chart-topper.
As soon as the Skyfall song ends, it will be available to buy as a download at the site. You can also pre-order via itunes anytime from today.
The website to go to is http://home.adele.tv if you want to get in on the Bond bonanza.
October 5 also marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Dr. No, and accordingly the James Bond film franchise, and will be celebrated as Global James Bond Day.
After reading the script for the film, Adele enlisted Paul Epworth to co-write and produce the theme song.
“I was a little hesitant at first to be involved with the theme song for Skyfall,” she admits. “There’s a lot of instant spotlight and pressure when it comes to a Bond song.
“But I fell in love with the script and Paul had some great ideas for the track. It ended up being a bit of a no brainer to do it in the end.
“It was also a lot of fun writing to a brief – something I’ve never done, which made it exciting. When we recorded the strings it was one of the proudest moments of my life.
“I’ll be back combing my hair when I’m 60, telling people I was a Bond girl back in the day I’m sure!”
Recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, Skyfall features the lush accompaniment of a 77-piece orchestra.
It’s the first recording by Adele since releasing her massively successful album 21 in early 2011.
To date 21 has sold more than 24 million albums worldwide and garnered Adele six Grammy Awards, two BRIT Awards and two Ivor Novello Awards.
The Skyfall movie will be released on October 26, 2012 in the UK and on November 9, 2012 in the US.
The 0.07am time slot for the Skyfall theme, by the way, is BST/London time. If you’re listening elsewhere in the world make sure you get your time difference right!
